Spokane Indian beaded hide medicine bundle case leads American Indian Art offerings at HeritageSept. 16-17 auction in Dallas features fine and rare offerings from across the spectrum of American Indian cultures, including paintings by Fritz Scholder, Sioux artifacts, Cochiti polychrome and a wi

The auction, with approximately 450 lots, will present American Indian art from a wide range of Native American cultures, with artifacts ranging across multiple eras.

“We’ve purposely assembled this auction so that every level of collector will find something to suit their tastes,” said Delia Sullivan, Director of American Indian Art at Heritage. “The emphasis here is on quality and condition and I believe American Indian Art aficionados will respond in kind with enthusiastic bidding.”

The late 20th Century American Indian experience is brilliantly portrayed in Fritz Scholder’s 1972 acrylic painting Fancy Indian, expected to be one of the auction’s most hotly contested pieces of contemporary art. It carries a pre-auction estimate of $15,000+.

“Scholder, who died in 2005, was one of the most prominent American Indian artists of his generation,” said Sullivan, “combining post-modern theory with Pop Art sensibility to create works that were accessible, thought-provoking and highly influential. Fancy Indian reveals all these traits and emerges as a highly compelling work.”

Two Helen Cordero Cochiti Polychrome Storytellers, both with an $8,000+ estimate, will also be widely anticipated by collectors. The first storyteller is orange and black against a white slip. In it, a male singer sits with outstretched legs supporting five children and a dog. Six additional children balance on his shoulders and back, and one of these children clutches his traditional hair knot. The second storyteller is orange and black against a cream slip, with a seated male singer with outstretched legs supporting four children with five additional children balancing on his shoulders and back.

A c. 1915 Navajo silver and turquoise squash blossom necklace leads a considerable selection of Southwestern jewelry in the auction. The piece, composed of a single strand of hand-wrought beads, interspersed with 16 blossoms – each with four petals – and a tufa cast naja with three stones suspended below, carries a pre-auction estimate of $6,000+.

“There’s a boon in native jewelry right now,” said Sullivan, “Collectors are looking for great, investment quality pieces, which is exactly what we’ve filled this auction with. Also, the baskets and pottery are in excellent condition they should attract lots of bidders.”

One more lot that has caught the eyes of collectors is a striking Kiowa Beaded Hide Strike-A-Light Bag, c. 1880, reportedly gifted by Wild Bill Hickok to his close friend Jim Courtright, and then passed down to daughter Lulu May Courtright Hart, who in turn gifted it to Carl W. Breihan, a St. Louis, MO Councilman. It was subsequently sold by Breihan in a Tom Keilman auction (late 1980s) to the present owner, and carries a pre-auction estimate of $4,000+.

Nearly 20 lots of superb Plateau Indian material are expected to garner significant attention with the offerings ranging from a fine Plateau Beaded Cloth